Grim Dawn, an Action RPG from indie studio Crate Entertainment, releases on Steam. Kickstarted in 2012 by the former lead gameplay designer on Titan Quest, Grim Dawn leaves Steam Early Access with already nearly 300k sales and a 94% user rating.
Grim Dawn is set in Cairn, a Victorian-era fantasy world where humanity has been pushed to the brink of extinction; crushed between two otherworldly powers fighting to control or destroy all of creation. One of these forces, the wraithlike Aetherials, seeks to enslave humans, whose bodies they possess to gain physical form. Players enter the world as a “taken,” one formerly possessed by an Aetherial. Cut down from the gallows at the last second, the player has been given a chance at redemption and finds the lingering effects of possession have left them with superhuman ability.
Grim Dawn features the brutal, fast-paced combat and epic loot players expect from the genre but also several distinctive features. Character customization begins with a dual-class skill system, allowing skill trees from any two classes to be combined. Devotion, an additional layer of skill customization allows you to acquire bonuses and powerful secondary effects for your class skills. These are unlocked from a giant constellation map with points acquired by restoring ruined shrines scattered throughout the world and gaining affinity with the deities of Cairn. Builds can be further individualized by over 200 skills granted by items and item add-ons.
Somewhat of a first for a “hack and slash” game, the choice & consequence quest system will present the player with tough choices. Strangers on the road, desperate families and even entire villages may live or perish, become ally or foe, depending on your actions. Will you extort and murder to gain advantage in your fight for survival or life up the downtrodden, hoping they might help you in return?
Rounding out the feature set is 4-person multiplayer, a faction system, the ability to rebuild parts of the world, rotatable camera, rogue-like dungeons, recipe crafting and probably more secrets and hidden areas than have ever existed in an ARPG.
Launching with a 10% discount, Grim Dawn is available on Steam
Reviews
“Grim Dawn’s the action RPG I’ve enjoyed most in quite some time, and I’m very keen to try the later chapters as they’re released. More so than Torchlight 2, which was a bit too much of a sugar rush experience for me, and certainly more so than Diablo III”
Rock Paper Shotgun
“Grim Dawn has earned my trust in a viable future; its foundation–the refined action and rock-solid character progression–is so sturdy that from moment to moment, there’s little to remind you that you’re playing an unfinished game.”
GameSpot
“If acquiring loot, battling monsters and progressing a character to amazing heights is your thing, then, again, Grim Dawn is a great game to look into.”
MMORPG
About This Game
Enter an apocalyptic fantasy world where humanity is on the brink of extinction, iron is valued above gold and trust is hard earned. This ARPG features complex character development, hundreds of unique items, crafting and quests with choice & consequence.
Key Features
◾Dual Class – Combine any of six distinct classes with over 25 skills and modifiers per class. Base classes include Soldier, Demolitionist, Occultist, Nightblade, Arcanist and Shaman.
◾Hundreds of Item Skills – Augment your class build with a diverse array of over 250 unique skills granted by items and equipment add-ons.
◾Collect hundreds of Items – Common, magical, rare, epic and legendary classes of loot. Plus over 20,000 possible magical affix combinations and over 200 rare affixes.
◾Quests with Choice and Consequence – You will face tough decisions that leave significant impacts upon the world. Strangers on the road, desperate families and even entire villages may live or perish based on your actions. Currently over 35 quests with 75+ lore notes to be collected.
◾Friendly and Enemy Factions – Earn favor with human factions to unlock additional quest lines, vendor discounts and special faction-based items and augments. Some neutral factions you can be turned into allies but aiding one will make the enemy of another. Hostile factions will remember your deeds and deepen their hatred of you, sending out large packs and elite heroes to hunt you down.
◾Devotion, an additional layer of skill customization allows you to acquire bonuses and powerful secondary effects for your class skills. These are unlocked from a giant constellation map with points acquired by finding and restoring destroyed or corrupted shrines hidden throughout the world.
◾Rebuild the World – Help human enclaves survive and flourish by securing vital necessities, rebuilding structures and rescuing survivors who can then lend their services to your cause.
◾4 Person Multiplayer – Connect with Friends or make new allies in glorious multiplayer. Multiplayer encounters will put your teamwork to the ultimate challenge.
◾Fast-paced Visceral Combat – Enemy blood spatters, ragdoll physics and satisfying enemy death effects. Smash in doors and fight house to house, leaving a path of demolished furniture in your wake.
◾Rotatable Camera – If you choose to survey the full beauty of the world and always fight from the most optimal angle. Levels are still designed so that players are not forced to rotate the camera; it is purely optional.
◾Secrets and Perils Abound – 200+ Enemy heroes and bosses, hand-configured with their own unique arrays of deadly skills. 20+ secret areas hidden behind crumbling walls, hidden gaps and mysterious locked doors. Explode obstacles or repair structures to open new paths.
◾Rogue-Like Dungeons – Descend into special locked challenge dungeons that require a rare crafted key, where enemy levels increase as you progress and player teleport is disabled. There is no way out except to complete the dungeon or die trying.
◾Dynamic Weather – The world is brought to life with region-specific climates and a variety of weather effects. A sunny day can cloud over with mild rain showers that builds into a booming thunderstorm. Variable wind gusts blow grass and affect objects like windmills.
◾Recipe Based Crafting – Collect over 250 crafting recipes that allow you to combine salvaged components into unique crafted items and then, later, use those basic crafted items with higher-tiered recipes to complete items of amazing power.
◾Reclaim Skill Points – The ability to pay to reclaim points alleviates the fear and frustration of having to make early, uninformed skill choices that could permanently gimp a character.